“I’m fusstated!” is Bree’s new favorite phrase. When Angela asks, “Why are you frustrated?” Bree’s usual answer is “I donno.” But last night after her bath, she answered, “I don’t wike dat sound.”
“What sound?” asked Angela. “The sound of the water going down the drain?”
“Yes!” said Bree emphatically.
“Umm, frustated usually means you’re trying really hard but you can’t do anything. Are you sure you don’t mean something else? Are you maybe scared? or anxious?”
“No! I’m fusstated!”
While it’s amazingly adorable to hear a 2 year old go around exclaiming “I’m fusstated,” we don’t think she really knows what it means.
During dinner, Anya uses the word “ekt” several times.
Jan: What do you mean, “ekt”?
Anya: Ekt. You know, like: turkey, stuffing, ekt.
Everyone: …
Jan: Um, do you mean the word, “etc.”?
Anya: Yes!
Everyone: Ahh…
Jan: It’s pronounced “et cetera”.
Anya: I think “ekt” is better.
Angela’s brother Johnny sent us a photo of their dad Cheng-nan after his spinal surgery. With his back completely straightened out—he’s grown three inches taller! He asked Angela’s mom why she’s so short. He’s also adjusting to having everything be three inches further away.
These days, Sabriya’s favorite bedtime/naptime song is what she calls the “goat song”. It’s not a lullaby at all, but a Japanese nursery song called “Yagi-san Yubin” (“goat mail”). Jan does his best to sing it as a lullaby anyway. In Japanese it goes like this:
白やぎさんからお手紙着いた
黒やぎさんたら読まずに食べた
仕方がないのでお手紙書いた
さっきの手紙のご用事なあに
黒やぎさんからお手紙着いた
白やぎさんたら読まずに食べた
仕方がないのでお手紙書いた
さっきの手紙のご用事なあに
English translation:
A letter arrived from White Goat
Black Goat gobbled it up unread
Nothing for it but to write a letter right back:
“I’m sorry, what was it that your letter said?”
A letter came from Black Goat
White Goat gobbled it up unread
Nothing for it but to write a letter right back:
“I’m sorry, what was it that your letter said?”
We pick and cut down a nice Frazer fir for our Christmas tree at Trinity Tree Farm in Issaquah. The girls also like a much tinier one.
Anya presents her report on “Hurricanes” to her second grade class. A big focus for her grade this year is becoming comfortable presenting to a group. The students have to prepare several reports, each of which includes a big poster, narrated report, and whatever other things they want to show. In preparation for these presentations, Anya’s been rehearsing them at home in front of the rest of us. Her props for this presentation include a top and a fan.
Only a potty-training toddler is proud to announce on a cell phone, “I’m peeing!” And only a grandmother of a potty-training toddler would excitedly exclaim and praise. In fact, said toddler was so excited that the NEXT time she used the potty, she had to simultaneously talk on her play cell phone, telling the imaginary grandmother what she was doing.
Anya and Liya have a holiday piano recital in the evening. Liya unfortunately comes down with something while we’re there, so she doesn’t perform. Anya does both her pieces (O Come All Ye Faithful, and Bartok’s Mikrokosmos #1-7) very well and with great poise. Anya’s teacher, Ms. Heafield, gives Anya an album in which she can keep programs from her recitals. Tonight’s recital program is already in it!
Angel and Leah come over for dinner. They recently visited Antarctica, and give the girls Christmas presents that include plush penguin toys. These are an instant hit, and join the multiple stuffed penguins we already have in the house (we’re not sure why we have so many).
Angela helps out at the 6:00 Christmas Eve service at MIPC. With that, she brings her internship at the church, which started in February, to an end. She’s looking forward to a break, then searching for a permanent position.
Merry Christmas! We celebrate the holiday at home. In the afternoon, the Nakanishis join us for a Christmas dinner of sukiyaki.
Travel day to Maui. After we check into the condo we’re renting, the girls take some time unpacking and setting up their rooms. We normally put Bree in her own room, but this time we’re trying to have her share a room with Liya. As Jan is getting Bree ready for bedtime, she surprises him by opening a dresser drawer to reveal that it contains a blanket on which the girls have arranged all the stuffed penguin toys they brought. Bree asks them (loudly), “Are you awake, penguins?”
Maui, Day 1. Bree wakes up at 4:00 am local time, followed shortly thereafter by Anya and Liya. We head down to the kid-friendly pool, and Anya and Liya pop back and forth between the big pool and the hot pool. After an hour or so of this, we wander down to the beach.
Bree is initially tentative about walking on the sand, but becomes interested when Jan points out we’re leaving footprints, and finally begins jumping up and down on the sand in delight. Anya and Liya build their traditional “sand boat” sculpture. Inspired by an episode of “Kipper”, the sand boat is roughly boat-shaped and has a seat for one person (or more, depending on how ambitious the sculptors get). It ends up looking sort of like a bumper car. We drag the girls back to the pool for lunch.
Back at the condo we meet the babysitter, Zoe, and put Bree down for a nap. Anya and Liya had wanted to come shopping with us, but they’re so exhausted from the water activity that they decide to stay behind with Zoe, so we get to do some shopping on our own at the nice outdoor mall across the street. Reunited for dinner, we all walk to Kai, a Japanese robata place. Angela gets some tasty grilled corn with her meal, but Bree eats it nearly all of it, so Angela orders some more. Bree eats most of that, too.
Maui, Day 2. Jan is hopeful we can get Anya and Liya to try snorkeling in the ocean on this trip, so makes a bid to give Liya a snorkeling lesson in the pool. Anya, naturally, wants to join in. They both snorkel around for a while, but Anya decides she’d rather be in the hot pool, and Liya eventually dips the top of her snorkel beneath the water with predictably bad results. We spent the rest of the morning at the beach, and Angela goes and gets lunch for us all to eat there. Jan and Angela take turns playing with Bree at the edge of the water. Jan bounces Bree up and down in the small waves, and she squeals with delight. Liya also has fun doing this. After dinner, Angela takes the girls shopping and buys matching dresses for all of them at Blue Ginger.
Anya’s journal entry for today: “Liya has had three bloody noses so far on our third day in Hawaii. I don’t know why. I think three bloody noses is a lot of bloody noses in three days.”
Maui, Day 3. Calling the trail at ’Iao Valley State Park a “hike” is overstating it; it’s more like a short walk. Angela thinks the walk is shorter than the walk from our condo to the beach. Still, it IS a beautiful walk through a rainforest surrounded by steep green mountains. On the way back, we take the “long” route back that takes us by a stream, where Anya and Liya happily jump from rock to rock. Liya needs help from Jan at one point, and when she suddenly shifts her weight, Jan ends up plunging one foot into the stream. We follow up on a recommendation to try Café O’Lei in Kahului for lunch, and it’s fantastic. One waitress tries to teach Bree the “shaka” sign, but Bree’s fingers aren’t coordinated to stick her thumb and pinky out while keeping the other fingers clenched. In the afternoon, a babysitter named Julia comes by to watch the girls while we go out for a long date: we watch a matinee showing of “Avatar”, followed by dinner at Mama’s Fish House on the North Shore. (Thank you, Cozi person who gave us this recommendation, whoever you are!) The setting on the beach is amazing, and we’re happy to get a table by the window. Angela’s very happy with her opa in Maui onions, and Jan loves the Panang fish curry.
Maui, Day 4. Pool morning. While babysitter Julia watches the girls, we go for a walk down the beach. On the way back we stop for a shave ice, then hang out by the adult pool. Dinner is Indian food at Monsoon in Kihei, which turns out to be great. There are palm trees out front, and after dinner Anya and Liya try climbing them a bit. Back at the hotel, Jan takes the older girls swimming again. There’s a full moon out, and the girls enjoy swimming at night.
Anya’s been drawing a lot of pictures of penguins. She’s recently started making comics about a penguin character. She makes these on post-it notes so that she quickly assemble them into little comic books. She’s been working on two things in these comics. One thing is trying to draw her penguin’s eyes and beak so that it’s clear what the penguin is looking at (instead of just staring out at the viewer). Also, Jan’s been working with her on the idea of introducing tension into a story so that it can be resolved by the end.
We’re not set up to scan the comic pictures right now, but the text of one story goes like this:
Everyone loves to read. Penguin has a favorite book. Once he lost it. Penguin couldn’t find it. Then it was time to go to bed. Penguin wanted to keep on looking but he went to bed. Then Penguin felt something under the covers. It was his book. Penguin was very happy. The End
Maui, Day 5 (New Year’s Eve day). We go geocaching at Big Beach in Makena, just a few minutes’ drive south of where we’re staying in Wailea. Jan had taken Anya to Big Beach several years ago in search of a letterbox (like a geocache, only with clues instead of a lat/long), but they’d never found it. Now with GPS phone in hand, we scramble up a rocky bluff of volcanic rock that separates Big Beach from Little Beach in search of cache GCROXP. The GPS gets us close, but it’s not particularly accurate, so we cross back and forth over the promontory. Jan finally sees where it is, but since he’s holding Bree, he asks Liya to scramble up to where it’s hidden. We leave two pieces of Lego in exchange for a wooden keychain fob. Anya and Angela have noticed there are a lot of tide pools below, so we slide down to them and explore for a while. The girls find fish, snails, cowries, hermit crabs, and sea urchins. Bree’s fascinated by one fish that keeps peeking its head out: “He’s trying to come out!” We wrap up the beach visit by stopping at the Jawz Taco Truck for fish tacos, quesadillas, and shave ice.